SOLVED. Children's novel: a house with nothing to read but the phone book [s]

[Dashka]

A girl who is an avid reader is sent away to the home of an elderly relative. She packs a trunk full of books to occupy her for her stay. The trunk is lost and there is nothing at the elderly aunt [?]'s house to read except the phone book. I think this is just the set up for the adventure to follow, but it's what I remember -- it affected me strongly as a child, since it was my worst fear!

Added info: Based on when I read it, it would have been published before 1978.

[Mir]

Was one of her parents a geologist or something? I just saw in passing a book where a kid is accidentally left with her parent's trunk of rock samples while the parent leaves to do research.

[Dashka]

Hmmmn. That sounds vaguely familiar. I should say though that this book was published before 1978 and probably earlier.

[Justanotherbiblophile]

An aside, there's always the ingredient labels and backs of cereal boxes... :P

And you can write your own novels in blood, even if they don't let you out to go write in the mud.

[SarahBeth]

This sounds like In a Blue Velvet Dress by Catherine Sefton

[Holly]

Good find SarahBeth! I actually just randomly came across this book today and was going to post it here, but you beat me to it :]

[Justanotherbiblophile]

You can mark this request as solved by clicking the 'edit' link next to the subject line / title, and then selecting one of the "Solved" folders. This will help save our moderators some time.

You should also change the subject line / title to start "SOLVED: [then your existing title]" which helps people still find your request later.

Solved requests are almost as important as unsolved requests, so don't delete your info :D

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Holly isn't the OP Justanotherbiblophile. We are still waiting on a response from Dashka

[Justanotherbiblophile]

1:15:AM.

I rest my case :D

[Kimber]

?

[Summer]

It does sound like In A Blue Velvet Dress, which was published in 1973!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

No response from Dashka. Moving to Solved.